Whitecaps Saturday: Caps don’t want to get shaken up by Earthquakes again

Bruce Constantineau, Vancouver Sun05.04.2012

Vancouver Whitecaps captain Jay DeMerit (left) in action against Brad Ring of the San Jose Earthquakes during their MLS game last season at Empire Field. ‘For 70 minutes, we showed that when we concentrate, we can keep them scoreless, DeMerit says of their game last month. ‘We need to make sure we do that for the full 90 [minutes].’

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VANCOUVER — It was a 10-minute meltdown Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Martin Rennie will never forget.

His squad was cruising along with a 1-0 lead against the San Jose Earthquakes midway through the second half at Buck Shaw Stadium when it suddenly all went wrong.

First, a bizarre goal created by a long throw-in ended the Caps' Major League Soccer record-setting shutout streak. Then shaken Caps defenders gave up two more goals within 10 minutes and Vancouver lost its first game of the season.

“The biggest lesson of that game is that you can never switch off,” said Rennie, who felt his players briefly lost their focus in San Jose last month. “We were on such a run of not losing goals that maybe we were slightly complacent at that moment and it cost us. I think we've learned from that.”

He'll find out just how much his team learned when the 4W-2L-2D Caps host the high-flying Earthquakes Saturday at BC Place Stadium (4 p.m., Sportsnet Pacific, Team 1410).

After missing the playoffs last year with an 8W-12L-14D record, San Jose coach Frank Yallop has guided his side to a league-leading 22 points this season off seven wins, one loss and one draw.

The Earthquakes have scored more goals than any team in MLS and boast the league's leading scorer — the skilled, opportunistic, hard-to-defend Chris Wondolowski.

Caps captain Jay DeMerit respects San Jose's skill but takes a positive from that humbling experience in northern California four weeks ago.

“For 70 minutes, we showed that when we concentrate, we can keep them scoreless,” he said. “We need to make sure we do that for the full 90 [minutes].”

Wondolowski's strike partner, bushy-haired Steven Lenhart, has scored four goals the past two games, proving he can do more than just be a big, pesky physical presence.

“You don't like to wrestle with people for 90 minutes, but that's what he likes to do so that's what you have to do,” DeMerit said. “You have to compete with him and make sure you affect his first touch.”

Whitecaps goalkeeper Joe Cannon, who played for Yallop in San Jose and Los Angeles, said the Earthquakes are clearly a team on a hot run.

“We have to come out and match their intensity and sustain it all match long,” he said. “But you can't worry too much about what they do or you'll shoot yourself trying to figure out how to stop them.”

Rennie attributes part of San Jose's early-season success this year to Yallop's four-and-a-half-year tenure as head coach.

“When coaches are there for a period of time, they get familiar with what they want to do and everybody understands their way of working,” he said. “That can build confidence.”

Whitecaps fans must hope that will happen in Vancouver under Rennie's watch, after the club went through two head coaches last season.

The Whitecaps will be looking for their fourth straight win, if you include the Canadian Championship victory over Edmonton this week, and will have nifty Brazilian forward Camilo Sanvezzo back in the lineup after he missed the past two games with a quadriceps injury.

SIDE KICKS: Caps striker Darren Mattocks, who returned to training this week after suffering burns in a cooking accident in mid-March, is close to returning to MLS play. He was listed as questionable in the updated league injury report on Friday.

Forward Etienne Barbara wasn't listed in the report, which indicates he has recovered from a groin strain that has kept him out all season. He was scheduled to play his first minutes of the year Friday when the Whitecaps Premier Development League squad hosted Kitsap Pumas at Swangard Stadium.

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Whitecaps Saturday: Caps don’t want to get shaken up by Earthquakes again

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